Fincastle County Road Orders 1773-1776

About the report:

The road history projects undertaken by the Virginia Transportation Research Council establish the feasibility of studies of early road networks and their use in the environmental review process. These projects, by gathering and publishing the early road orders of the vast parent counties, also lay the foundation for additional research by local groups over a broad area of Virginia. This volume marks the twenty-fifth entry in the Historic Roads of Virginia series, first initiated by the Virginia Transportation Research Council (then the Virginia Highway & Transportation Research Council) in 1973. Fincastle County Road Orders 1773-1776 is a cooperative effort of the Virginia Transportation Research Council and the New River Historical Society. This volume furthers the coverage of early western Virginia transportation records begun in the previously published Orange County Road Orders 1734-1749, Augusta County Road Orders 1745-1769, and Botetourt County Road Orders 1770-1778. This project covers the entire period of Fincastle County's existence, during which time the county covered much of present-day southwest Virginia. This information will eliminate the need for further research into the Fincastle County road order records. If questions arise about early roads once a Virginia Department of Transportation road improvement project is already underway (or nearly underway), primary historical research of this nature can take 6 to 12 months to complete. Therefore, this study can be a source of potentially significant cost savings for VDOT, including the avoided costs of project delays and consultant costs for cultural resource studies should questions arise.

Authors